Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/292

232 Commons for Ten Years, and so sing its requiem, ere the new Imperial Parliament rises in its place. It would be too good to be true! “At last! at last!" would cry the new lands over the seas. “At last Britain comes to her own again!” Will it ever be? How sick every one is of this party system, which is so unpatriotic.

That the day of the British is over—that is the idea that is spread now through the Dutch East Indies—purposely spread—and which has extended to our own priceless possessions of Singapore and Hong-Kong, that is spreading throughout the whole East, and is it the East alone? The natives of all sorts believe it. We only hold India, Ceylon, and our Eastern possessions through prestige— that gone, they go too.

That the day of the British is far from being over, is not the point. It is, that the world, and especially the East, must be shown that the idea is a false one, and must learn that the British Empire is as yet in its early days, and that the British race has no intention of abandoning its great destiny.]

Many of the Malays—or Celebians—are good- looking, but often small and thin. The descend- ants of the Arab pirates, whose deeds were once notorious, they betray numerous traces of their origin. The women cover their faces as they pass you, just as the Arab women do. They are dignified and well mannered, great sticklers for etiquette, and abhor practical joking or vulgarity —compared to them a British hooligan is a Brita savage. There are scores of Malay police and Dutch soldiers about Macassar—the latter in Glengarry bonnets. Many of the children are naked, but the general wear is coloured baggy trousers and the sarong of various checks. Some wear enormous coloured hats.